Shel Dorf | |
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![]() Dorf in April 1988 | |
Born | Sheldon Dorf July 5, 1933 Detroit, Michigan, U.S. |
Died | November 3, 2009 San Diego, California, U.S. | (aged 76)
Nationality | American |
Area(s) | comic book convention pioneer, letterer |
Notable works | San Diego Comic-Con International Steve Canyon (lettering only) |
Awards | Inkpot Award (1975)[1] |
http://www.sheldorftribute.com/ |
Sheldon "Shel" Dorf (July 5, 1933 – November 3, 2009) was an American comic book enthusiast and the founder of San Diego Comic-Con International.[2][3][4] Dorf was also a freelance artist and graphic designer, who lettered the Steve Canyon comic strip for the last 12 to 14 years of the strip's run.[5][4][6]
Born in Detroit, Michigan, Dorf was a fan of comic books and comic strips, particularly Chester Gould's work on the daily strip Dick Tracy.[3][7]
Dorf studied at Chicago's Art Institute before moving to New York and beginning his career as a freelancer in the field of commercial design.[3] In the 1960s, Dorf had made the acquaintance of a number of creators working in the two fields, among them Jack Kirby, upon whom Dorf would occasionally call.[8]
In 1964 back in Detroit, teenager Robert Brosch organised a convention for fans of the comics medium, which Dorf and Jerry Bails, the "father of comics fandom", attended.[7] The next year Dorf and Bails took over the event, christening it the "Detroit Triple Fan Fair" (referring to fantasy literature, fantasy films, and comic art)[9] and organizing it as an annual event. The Detroit Triple Fan Fair (DTFF) is credited as being the first regularly held convention featuring comic books as a major component.[10] Dorf went on to produce the DTFF in 1967[11] and 1968 as well.
In 1970, Dorf moved to San Diego, California,[12] to take care of his aging parents. Almost immediately, he organized a one-day convention "as a kind of 'dry run' for the larger convention he hoped to stage,"[4] with Forrest J Ackerman as the star attraction.
Dorf's first three-day San Diego comics convention, the Golden State Comic-Con,[12] was held at the U. S. Grant Hotel[12] from August 1–3, 1970.[13] It would eventually grow into the San Diego Comic-Con International,[14] now considered the standard bearer for U.S. comic conventions. The convention moved in subsequent years to the El Cortez Hotel; the University of California, San Diego; and Golden Hall, before settling into the San Diego Convention center in 1991.[15]
As "'Founding Father' of San Diego Comic-Con", Dorf received an Inkpot Award at the 1975 San Diego Comic-Con.[16]
In 1984 Dorf began compilation and editing of the Dick Tracy comic strips in comic book format for Blackthorne Publishing, "proudly"[17] publishing ninety-nine issues and collecting the material again in twenty-four collections.[17]
Chester Gould's daughter, Jean Gould O'Connell credits Dorf with bringing "Tracy out to another generation."[17] Comics historian Mark Evanier said Caniff "honored Shel by making him into a character. It was a well-meaning football player named "Thud Shelley" who appeared a few times in the Canyon strip. Jack Kirby also made Shel into a character ... a father figure named Himon who appeared in Mister Miracle.[4] In 1990, Dorf was employed as a consultant on Warren Beatty's big-screen adaptation of Dick Tracy.[3][18]
Dorf would also contribute interviews to the comics press and movie collector magazines (including for The Buyer's Guide for Comic Fandom [TBG] and Film Collector's World), and his conversations with Milton Caniff and Mort Walker have both been collected in the University Press of Mississippi's Milton Caniff: Conversations and Mort Walker: Conversations respectively. His interview with Wally Wood (among the few to see print) for TBG was reprinted in Comic Book Artist #14 (July 2001).
Dorf died at age 76 on November 3, 2009, from diabetes-related complications[19] in Sharp Memorial Hospital, San Diego. He was survived by his brother, Michael.[20]
The Shel Dorf Awards were created in 2010 to honor "'the comic industry's best and brightest talents', and voted on by fans."[21] In 2011,[22] the Detroit Fanfare convention began presenting the awards,[23] which were presented through 2013.[24][25]